Want to help? Consider becoming a Patreon.

Dacys – Noble Dragonborn Monk (Amiee)
Urthez – Folk Hero Rogue (Charles)
Twig – Soldier Barbarian (Jake)
Zelona – Noble Paladin (Tam)
Kai – Sage Bard (Sami)
Brolimir – Sage Druid (Matt)

With the threat of the demon gone; the only problems that plague the Ivory Vale center on the constant goblin attacks and the rabid wolves. Mayor Belgar Daggeredge asks the party to do one more favor. Since it’s now been several days since their return from the temple (which, he thanks the party, once again, for doing) and now that the blacksmith (Argus Bloodstone)’s daughter (Elyra) is recovering nicely; he asks that the party go and deliver the news to Varek’s wife, who lives on a farm, beyond the Ivory Vale’s gates, that since his body has not been found, and there’s been no communication to indicate that he’s alive; that it’s safe to assume that Varek is probably dead. If he had survived and fled the temple, he was probably killed by either roaming goblins or wolves that are currently plaguing the Ivory Vale citizens.

The party agrees to bring this somber news, and sets out on foot, as early as possible, to race to the home of Varek’s wife, before nightfall. They arrive at her home a little after noon, and deliver the news to her. She is heartbroken by the news, as are her two children, clinging to her leg, as they overhear the news. With her children crying, she invites the party into her house, as she tries to calm the children. Kai begins to play her Lute to try and calm the children, with a heroic song. With her knowledge of history, as she plays, she notices that several pieces of armor seem to be missing from the walls; and that a lot of the decoration is a black and yellow checkered flag; which marks him a soldier of Ordorn Kingdom; which had fought in the Great War fifty years ago. (Inside the kitchen of Taleena’s home, Twig pockets a bottle of strong rum, which his brother, Urthez – a good natured Half-Orc rogue discourages such behavior – stealing from a grieving widow). As they leave the house, without explaining why Urthez offers Taleena two gold.

Asking Varek’s wife (Taleena)’s permission, the party begins to search around the outside of the house, where – between careful examination by Brolimir and Urthez – that they were able to find, not only wolf prints all around the farm; but goblin prints. But what stuck out the most, was a set of human prints that came to the edge of the farm – then led back into the woods. Careful examination showed that these were recent prints, and it was able twelve goblins and one human sized person. Following the tracks, it leads through a small section of the forest, before leading towards Shadow Peak Mountain, where a storm rages violently at its top.

The party suddenly finds themselves, surrounded by twelve goblins, who have formed a circle of six (and six on the outside), with spears charging them (an unusually intelligent trap, and attack formation for otherwise careless goblins). Quickly moving back to back, the party attempts to defend themselves, but Brolimir is gravely wounded when one of his own spells backfires. Urthez is next to take a large amount of damage, bleeding profusely through several wounds. As the tide seems to turn against the party, somehow the tables turn, and the party begins to fare better, until there’s only one goblin left. That’s when, through bloody eyes, Urthez notices a tall figure standing on top of one of the hills, as lightning flashes behind the figure. The goblins, fleeing for his life, seems to be running in that direction. Kai unleashes an arrow that strikes the goblin, slowing him down enough so that Twig launches a javelin, striking the goblin who is now crawling. Twig runs up to the goblin to question him, but just as he does, the figure watching the battle launches an arrow, directly between the goblin’s eyes, then quickly vanishes in the darkness between strikes of lightning.

Pursuing that general direction, the party crests over the hill that the figure had been standing on. Kai sees a small cave at the base of the Shadow Peak Mountain and also notices a charred tree with an axe embedded into it. She makes her way down to examine it, and finds an arrow launched at her from the cave; while Twig, curious if he could stand on his shield and slide down the muddy hill skims down the hill, successfully, without falling. When Kai calls for help, everyone successfully runs down the hill to assist her, except for Zelona, the Paladin adorned in heavy armor, who slowly makes her way down cautiously.

They’re able to dispatch the single goblin guard and make their way inside the cave. Once inside, they see that the cave goes both to the south east, as well as north west, where there is an iron door. Urthez picks the lock, but the door screams, due to rusted hinges as he opens the gate. Still, nothing happens. Cautiously moving forward, they hear what they believe to be is growling; but turns out to be a drunken goblin, sleeping against the wall essentially “dead to the world” because of how intoxicated he is. Fearful that he might awaken, Twig simply thinks cramming a rock in the goblin’s mouth will prevent him from making any noise; instead it awakens the drunken goblin, who has no chance against the fight, and is dispatched. Urthez searches the body and locates a key that had been “hidden” near the rump of the goblin. Taking the filthy key, the party moves forward and finds two locked doors. Opening one, they see a beaten half-elf woman, who is so far beaten that her face is almost unrecognizable; and her clothes are tattered and torn. Zelona uses her Lay on Hands to heal the woman’s wounds, while Brolimir attempts to mend her clothing; and gets clawed in the eyes for it. (Clearly having an issue with abuse that came to her from male goblins). Twig tries to punch the woman for attacking his friend, but Zelona steps between them and Urthez is able to calm his brother down. The party moves to the next door, where they see five freshly captured men, who explain they were merchants that were attacked and captured by the goblins only a few days ago. The party goes back and ties up the half-elf woman, so that she can’t attack the merchants, and asks them to take her back to the Ivory Vale to get medical help. The merchants agree, and are escorted back to the entrance of the cave (since the party has to travel that way anyway).

The party continues in the southwest direction, where the hall gets smaller and opens up to a circular room with a large, natural pit in the center, with five other tunnels spawning out from it. Choosing to enter the first door to the right, the party lines up Kai, Brolimir, and Urthez, all who have bows, and manage to sneak up on the feast hall, which has about ten goblins inside. Kai and Brolimir launch an arrow each, killing one target; while Urthez manages to break his bow. The rest of the party then rushes into the room. In the mass hysteria and confusion, Urthez is able to move behind several goblins and begin back stabbing (accidentally, once, stabbing his friend Brolimir in all the excitement), while Dacys finds herself under constant attack (perhaps because she is the largest), with goblins wielding kitchen knives and forks stabbing her in the leg; one striking with a critical hit, that brings Dacys down. Zelona breaks off from the fight in the feast hall to run to Dacys’ side and stabilize her. When the fight is done, Brolimir gives Dacys several healing potions he had made to allow her to recover some health. Checking that there is no other way into the feast hall, except the door they came in; the party uses this room to rest. While they rest, Urthez finds a room that is marked off by a curtain and moving the curtain reveals a treasure chest, oddly placed in the feast hall. Trying to open it, he is pricked by a needle and poisoned; so that he feels nauseous and begins seeing things in double. Twig tries to grab some gold and finds that he’s poisoned as well; as the party determines that the chest is an illusion of some kind and laced with poison. After recovering, Zelona is able to lay on hands on Urthez, removing the poisonous effect, but Twig (whom she has had problems with) remains poisoned, for her Lay on Hands can only be done once a day.